Recently, Melvin Gordon appeared on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football to discuss the possibility of Aaron Rodgers playing in orange and blue, as well as the Denver Broncos’ outlook for the 2021 season.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, it sounds like the former Wisconsin native doesn’t see the Rodgers trade coming together.
“As far as Aaron Rodgers, I honestly think he’s going to stay with Green Bay,” Gordon said. “…I think he’s gonna stay there, man. You can’t really see him in any other color. But who would be upset with having Aaron Rodgers? But we don’t have him, so we got to roll with Teddy, we got to roll with Drew, so whoever’s our guy is our guy.”
While Gordon touched on the Rodgers situation, the major theme of the interview was him feeling that the Broncos are being criminally underrated by the media.
“We definitely aren’t talked about enough, but it’s expected,” Gordon said. “If you don’t win as many games as you should, people don’t bring you up. It is what it is. But it’s better that way. It gives us a chip on our shoulder. We’re going to give them a reason to talk about us. I know everyone there is working with a mindset to go get it. We have a lot of leaders back, we have a lot of guys back, and hopefully, we stay away from the injury bug. But I think with our offense going up against our defense every day. We got the pieces.”
Dodging the injury bug will be key as last season the Broncos were often forced to play with either a depleted quarterback room, offensive line, skill position group, defensive line, pass rush or secondary, and frequently some combination of two or more injured position groups.
One would think the Broncos’ injury luck would regress towards the mean this season, but who knows? Teams like the Chargers, Eagles and 49ers seem to have bad injury luck every single year.
While he was eliminating excuses, Gordon also took time to touch on the youth on Denver’s roster.
“We’re young, but we can’t let that be an excuse,” Gordon said. “Everybody has suited up on game day, been out there, and had their reps, so we’re young, but we’re not going to let that be an excuse to not do what we need to do. If we got to be the youngest team to go out there and go get it, then that’s what we’re going to be. We have the leaders to go out there and do what we need to do. So, yeah, we’re overlooked. You got Patty Mahomes over there. Herbert went and had the season he had. Like you said, the Raiders, they got that dope stadium. So it’s easy for us to go overlooked. That just is what it is. We’re in a tough division. Our division has got a lot going on at this point in time. But (if) we go out there and win games, a lot of things can change quickly.”
Now with a defense armed to the teeth with talent to stop Mahomes and Herbert, the Broncos are hoping the wins will soon follow.